Melbourne Day 1

Over the Christmas holiday, Jeff and I took a great trip down to Melbourne. We spent 4 days there and it might be my favorite place in Australia so far! The city is smaller than Sydney but that is what made it so great. We walked everywhere and they were always great things to find around every corner!

We started the trip by taking a sleeper train down to Melbourne. We left Christmas night and it was such a fun experience!

Jeff getting on the sleeper car of the train!

After playing a few card games it was time for bed. We pulled out the beds and were ready to hop in! It wasn't the best nights sleep but it was definitely a fun time! Jeff called top bunk!

Once we got into town the next morning, we checked in to our fabulous hotel and then we were off exploring!

Here is the national library in Victoria.

There are so many historic buildings all around downtown that are still in use. Most are used for a different purpose than first intended but they are amazing to see!

This is a part of the Royal Exhibition Building in North Melbourne. It was a beautiful park.

Here is the path leading up to the building. Stunning trees!

The state parliament building is beautiful as well. I took several pictures of this place!

We grabbed lunch in Chinatown. It was a great area of town with restaurants lining the street.

Basically everything we ate in Melbourne was amazing! It will be hard to top all the food there!

Another great thing we noticed right away were all the wonderful Christmas decorations since it was the holidays. The Aussies are not worried about being PC and it makes me so happy to see all the celebratory decorations of the real reason for Christmas!

This is the Flinders Street train station.

The Town Hall Building was dressed up like a package with toy soldiers guarding the doors!

Then we found the Christmas park. It had this great nativity scene, trees wrapped as presents and even the Christmas story on a wall.

We also found the laneways that everyone told us about! These are thin little alleys that have been revitalized with bars, restaurants and great shops. Some are covered in really artistic graffiti murals (more posts on that to come).

After a long day of walking the city, we grabbed a pint at the local brewery! James Squire is a great Aussie brand of beer. They had a little brewery around the corner from our hotel!

For dinner, we headed to an area of town called Carlton. This is the Italian area of town and it is lined with several restaurants and shops. We stopped into this place and it was amazing!

I am pretty sure I was in a food / touring coma the entire time we were in Melbourne but it was all worth it! More to come on day two of our trip!